How to raise 5M on Kickstarter and Become an instant Millionaire

[biophase]

Rut Roh!

$13 million Kickstarter project for a cooler continues to be a disaster

http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/13/11424924/coolest-cooler-kickstarter-disaster-delays

Seems like Kickstarter failures, or failures in process, are becoming more normal as entrepreneurs fail to execute.

The title of the thread an example of people who think that raising money is the same as making money.

 

[Dmitri]

1) Choose a common product that is used by millions of people but has not been innovated for decades
2) Make it cool again
3) Find a manufacturer and get a prototype made
4) Start a Kickstarter campaign

Link to Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryangrepper/coolest-cooler-21st-century-cooler-thats-actually

Thought I would post this because I think there are great lessons here for someone who is actively looking for what product to sell.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

Also the continual FLF favorite of "gross revenue" and "profit" are basically the same if the number is high enough

Actually I don't see a lot of this here, but I see self-proclaimed gurus do this. And it makes for great click bait. "This entrepreneur did $500K last month, see how he did it!" (No mention of profit -- anyone can "do $500K" when you're selling dollars for pennies.)

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I would love to know the secret sauce to the success.

Uh... a product that people want? A product that demonstrates well? A product that is shareable, tweetable, and postable? A product that solves problems and makes things more convenient? Don't the "the secret" is the free t-shirt.

 

[PHowey]

Copy, Copy, & Innovate... The best business successes I have personally had have always been from taking a well known service, copying what I liked, omitting what I hated, and adding my own innovation.

I forget what the percentage is but most first to market products/services fail. This is a great example of copying an existing product, leveraging an already educated customer base, and adding innovation that people want.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Rut Roh!

$13 million Kickstarter project for a cooler continues to be a disaster

http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/13/11424924/coolest-cooler-kickstarter-disaster-delays

Seems like Kickstarter failures, or failures in process, are becoming more normal as entrepreneurs fail to execute.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[splok]

It's even more interesting because his first attempt failed: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryangrepper/the-coolest-cooler-with-blender-music-and-so-much

 

[AllenCrawley]

Thread moved to the outside.

This makes for a killer case study.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

1) Choose a common product that is used by millions of people but has not been innovated for decades

One of the Fastlane book recommendations is "Inside the Box" (by Goldberg)-- this product innovation is an exact study in what that book explains.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Magik]

I think hes referencing the fact that 6 months ago the guys same campaign only made 100k on kick starter and now he's at 5 million in a week or so.

5000% better

6 months ago was the dead of winter, at least in the States and Canada it was. Now, we are in the middle of summer, when more people are thinking about coolers, seeing coolers, using coolers. This is a seasonal product (and a product that probably won't get used in Winter) and the demand is currently higher, which not only increases the odds of someone buying, but also that people will share it.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[RHL]

Seems like Kickstarter failures, or failures in process, are becoming more normal as entrepreneurs fail to execute.

Instagram generation. It's the Kardashian/Bilzerian effect. These projects are like a role playing game character, with a finite number of points to distribute among "stats."

Everything is dumped in marketing and the pitch video/funnel.

Nothing is put on the product.

This is the recipe for a product that explodes off shelves when launched and then bombs just after. Great mainstream example: The new Batman/Superman movie. Huge hype, terrible reviews, massive week-2 box office crash.

You can only pull this stunt once per product unless your business, like Bilzerian and Kardashian, is basically being a celebrity mega-affiliate for already existing products.

The title of the thread an example of people who think that raising money is the same as making money.

Also the continual FLF favorite of: "Gross revenue" and "profit" are basically the same if the number is high enough."

"Hey guys, I grossed 20 bazillion last year!"

Great, how much did you keep?

 

[Get Right]

I also like how entrepreneurs think they "made it" when they get funding. Nope. You got another boss(s).

 

[AllenCrawley]

Actually I don't see a lot of this here, but I see self-proclaimed gurus do this. And it makes for great click bait. "This entrepreneur did $500K last month, see how he did it!" (No mention of profit -- anyone can "do $500K" when you're selling dollars for pennies.)

View attachment 12101

I was on a webinar recently where the guy was complaining about people like us. Those that don't buy into the "I made $50k last month" without context. He literally said, "what does it matter? Even if it took me $49,999 in Facebook ads to make that $50k I'm still profitable." No mention of cost of goods as this was indeed a physical product based "training". I immediately shut down the webinar.

 

[Joe Cassandra]

I reached out to Ryan cold and asked him how the hell did he do such a bang up job with this Kickstarter as I'm sure KS loves him to death as it shows the proof in the pudding, that crowdfunding isn't going anyway and will only get bigger as the future comes.

Here's what he said (I asked him, again, how did they get so much traction):

Hey Joe,

Thanks for reaching out. I’ll be sharing more details of my Kickstarter
experience after the campaign closes, but here are a few of the biggest
factors.
1. People are much more interested in coolers in the summer rather than the
winter.
2. We had a group of passionate supporters from our first campaign, ready
to take up the charge and share among their friends.
3. We improved the COOLEST design, took a more targeted marketing approach
and focused our video on all the great features offered.
It's been such an exciting time, and really we have all our amazing backers
to thank for that!

Notes:

1) Timing is everything with these campaigns (good advice for me as I may run a Kickstarter but it would now have to be for next year summer)
2) Have a base. Don't expect Kickstarter to do any marketing, SEO for you. Get initial funders before the gig hits to get it off the ground ASAP
3) Test your design, make changed. Target the right market and make sure you have the right tools to show how awesome your product is.

He's done awesome, 8MM as of today and 25 days left!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[DaRK9]

Hmmm I wonder why this new page was vastly more successful

The second looks way better and goes for benefits not only features.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I think hes referencing the fact that 6 months ago the guys same campaign only made 100k on kick starter and now he's at 5 million in a week or so.

I understand that, but even the "failure" garnered $100K which in my book shows demand. I thought both campaigns looked well done, the 2nd definitely showed better, but 5000% better?

 

[1step]

Ah another thing I just noticed about the previous campaign was that $75,000 of the $100,000 was raised from his most expensive pledge levels. This was 15 people who spent 3k-7k each for various bonuses including meeting Brendon Burchard author of the Millionaire Messenger.

In essence this means he sold 80 coolers last time as opposed to 25k+ this time.

Its interesting that he removed all of these high price point pledge offers from this new campaign when that is how he made the vast majority of the money the last time.

 

[Fox]

A good example of what bad customer service looks like...

Recent backer comments

 

[Milkanic]

"the power of compound interest the most powerful force in the universe." -Albert Einstein

I think this hit some kind of tipping point around 1-2M where people started sharing for the dollar value alone, not because of the product and the exposure grew exponentially.

y=2^x is a beautiful thing.

 

[Tom.V]

Rut Roh!

$13 million Kickstarter project for a cooler continues to be a disaster

http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/13/11424924/coolest-cooler-kickstarter-disaster-delays

Seems like Kickstarter failures, or failures in process, are becoming more normal as entrepreneurs fail to execute.

A good example of what bad customer service looks like...

Recent backer comments

What a shit show. And coming up next, on American Greed...

 

[NonMagicalGenie]

Rut Roh!

$13 million Kickstarter project for a cooler continues to be a disaster

http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/13/11424924/coolest-cooler-kickstarter-disaster-delays

Seems like Kickstarter failures, or failures in process, are becoming more normal as entrepreneurs fail to execute.

Kickstarter projects like this ruin the chances for many other campaigns that actually care about their consumers. Its horrible.

One major bad apple ruins the chances for thousands.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[csalvato]

Looks like all that Facebook spend to get $13M in sales wasn't factored into the total costs he would incur to, you know, make the damned thing.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[SJVC]

Wow that is really cool!

I think this just reinforces the fact that you don't have to reinvent the wheel, just alter it a bit, make it a bit (or a lot) better.

And they have raised $5m+... That is insane, they had a 50k target!

Going to be a case of keeping up with demand for them now, thanks for sharing.

 

[Vigilante]

Now he's got to deliver.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The title of the thread an example of people who think that raising money is the same as making money.

Yea, and it seems the entrepreneur felt that way as well. If you read the complaints, he supposedly made a video and commented as much.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[million$$$smile]

“The Master said, “If your conduct is determined solely by considerations of profit you will arouse great resentment.”
― Confucius

“You get to choose your decision, but you don't get to choose the consequences.”
― Osayi Emokpae Lasisi

 

[csalvato]

Sometimes it's supposedly smart people/businesses who do this. I called my credit card company (Amex) last year to get a credit increase on a business card and was asked what the gross sales of the business were so they could approve the increase. I asked, "Do you mean net income? Or do you really just want gross sales?" They said, "Gross sales."

I happily told them that our gross sales were about $6M. They didn't seem to care that our business was buying and selling houses, and our net profit margins were only about 7-8%. In fact, that $6M in sales could have easily represented breaking even for our business...or even losing money. You'd think the underwriters at Amex would understand (and care about) this...but apparently not...

Though perhaps it's me that's missing something...

I'm not an underwriter but I think the reason for this is not to gauge your ability to pay the bills, but your spending power. If you are pulling in $6M in gross revenue, that's essentially $6M in spending power. If you put 50% of that through AMEX, thats conservatively $75,000 in revenue for their processing fees (2.5% of $3M).

Again, not an underwriter, but I don't think they are using your revenue to gauge whether or not you can pay them back, but whether or not you can actually even spend that much money with them. If you can't, it's not even worth the risk of extending you the line of credit.

In other words, it's probably a factor they use in conjunction with your existing credit history to approve the credit limit; but not something that is a gauge of your ability to pay the bills responsibly.

 

[SJVC]

Hmmm I wonder why this new page was vastly more successful

 

[1step]

Uh... a product that people want? A product that demonstrates well? A product that is shareable, tweetable, and postable? A product that solves problems and makes things more convenient? Don't the "the secret" is the free t-shirt.

I think hes referencing the fact that 6 months ago the guys same campaign only made 100k on kick starter and now he's at 5 million in a week or so.

 

[1step]

according to the story I saw yesterday about this product on the local news... they said it was because he hired a really expensive PR firm (over $7k/mo).. dont know if thats true or not but thats what they said on TV

Thats the Press Release I would generate if I was that PR firm!